Who You Gonna Call? Informal Networks

I’ve just returned from a packed weekend at my first Winchester Writers’ Conference. This event, which has been running for the past 33 years, was the brainchild of the wonderful Barbara Large, who has just stepped down from her role as Director (although we got the feeling she wouldn’t be disappearing completely from the scene).

The weekend was a mixture of master classes, short talks and the brilliant one-to-ones, the opportunities for delegates to spend time in front of agents, publishers or authors, pitching their latest work in progress. There was anticipation, there was relief, there was laughter, and there were tears. But whatever the emotions we felt as each fifteen minutes slot was finished, we had been given the opportunity to learn from the industry experts.

And that’s the topic we’re moving on to next. We’ve identified our business objectives and made our plans; we’ve decided on our business structures; we’ve set up our financial systems; we’ve even done a risk assessment (well, we have done that after last weeks’ posts, haven’t we?). We’re now going on to think about our support network — and we all need one of those.

Next week, we will look at the professional support structure and think a bit more about the experts we might need to consult in running our businesses. Today, we’re going to think about another aspect: our informal networks. If there is one memory of Winchester that is stronger than any other, it’s the sight and sound of hundreds of writers talking, swapping notes, and learning from each other.

Writing is a lonely business! We spend hours hunched over a notepad or a keyboard, often staring at acres of white space; and when the page or the screen is full of words, we look at them and wonder if they are any good or whether we’re wasting our time. At other times, with our business hats on, we stare at the spreadsheet, the cash book (or the carrier bag full of receipts) and try to work out what it all means (and why we’re doing it)? In most businesses, there would be other people we could talk to, performance standards to measure ourselves against, even rules and regulations we could follow. But, our business isn’t like that. And there will be times when it will all seem too difficult to carry on. But it’s our business! We can’t just stop doing it — or at least, we shouldn’t!

So we need a support network, and the best place to start looking for this is online. There are many established writing communities on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ (and any other network we might be using). And the beauty of social media is that if we can’t find what we want — we set it up for ourselves. Whether we think we will get support from old college friends, from business people in our own town, or from someone across the world, it’s all possible via the internet. [In fact, I’ve been chatting, I mean talking business, with a friend in Australia just this morning.]

When I started my small business more than twenty years ago, the internet wasn’t available — at least not for ordinary people — so all our networking was done face to face. Even today, when we are all connected and online (some of us far more than we should be!), it’s still good to get out there and talk to people. A smiley face is no substitute for the real thing.

Remember we are business owners, and as such, some of our problems will be shared by people in totally different fields of work. Most towns have general business networks, whether they are called business guilds, chambers of commerce or something more fanciful. For example, I am a member of the wonderfully-named Ladies Do Latte, a group of 400+ business women across the South West of England. Networking groups provide the opportunity to pick the brains of people who will have the same business issues as us, even if their product or service is totally different. And of course, there is always the chance of picking up new projects while chatting to someone over breakfast or lunch.

Local writers’ groups are great for helping to improve our writing craft; for critiquing; and for finding like-minded people to share a stall at a book fair; collaborate on a writing project; or act as beta readers. But, there are many other opportunities for writers to get together, whether that’s via national organisations such as the Society of Women Writers and Journalists (SWWJ) and the Romantic Novelists Association (RNA) or more regionally-based ones such as the West Country Writers’ Association (WCWA). All these groups have meetings, which range from annually to monthly. The London Book Fair has traditionally been an industry event, focussed on the agents and publishers more than the authors. However, with the growth in indie publishing, this is becoming another useful place to meet people.

I started this post by talking about the Winchester Conference. There are a number of other such events running throughout the year and I’m going to finish by giving a plug for my particular favourite, the Writers' Summer School at Swanwick. This runs for a week during August, has been doing so for the past 65 years and has a dedicated ‘family’ of writers who attend each year, who are very welcoming to any ‘newbies’ and are always willing to help with problems anyone has, either with the craft of writing or with the business side. Of course, I might be biased, as I teach The Business of Writing at Swanwick each year, but if you are looking to spread or set up your informal face-to-face network, then a conference is a great way of doing it. I look forward to meeting some of you there.

Saying Thanks: For The Generosity of Writers

I’m sitting in my newly-refurbished writing retreat, aka the garden room, across the lawn from the house. It is the first time I’ve worked in here for five months, following the flood in November that changed so much, and this is only the second blog posting I’ve written in that time. I’ve done quite a lot of writing, published an ebook and finished a novel, but it’s all been done in the tiny space on the attic landing that I carved out for myself in the days after the mopping up finished and the waiting(for drying) began.

This blog is supposed to be weekly, and often features articles on writing as a small business. I don’t feel qualified to comment on the art and craft of creative writing, as I’m fairly new to the whole scene and am definitely still learning. However, having run my own small business for the past twenty-odd years, I do feel I have something to give to writers who are more interested in getting their words onto paper (and hopefully into print) than in maintaining records  or keeping the tax authorities happy.

I will return to my musings on business systems in a couple of weeks’ time. In the meantime, I hope you will indulge me in two personal postings, both about generosity. Next week I will focus on the help and support we got from friends and neighbours during our ‘spot of bother’ with the weather. This week, I want to talk about the wonderful community I have found since I started writing.

Earlier this month, I brought out an ebook Parcels in the Rain and Other Writing and we had a party, online, to celebrate the launch. It was the third time I’d done this. The first, in March 2012, was a quiet little affair. I ran it via our Facebook page, with links to my website. Trying to keep things going in two places at once was a difficult juggling act, but since very few people came, it wasn’t too much of a problem. The second launch, in November 2012, was more successful. We had an all-day Facebook event; I managed to get my internet-phobic co-author online for a while and we kept the whole thing going for twelve hours. But it still wasn’t the raging success I’d hoped for. People stood around, unsure why they were there (well, in a virtual sense anyway).

This month’s party was a totally different affair; and the difference was made by the help and support from other writers. I posted news of the event on Facebook; my writing friends shared and commented. More than seventy people came to the party at some point during the day; many of them were writers taking a break from their latest WIP. I ran a silly game, which I pinched, with her permission, from Sally Quilford’s launch party: post three little-known facts about yourself, only two of which are true; my writing friends threw themselves into the task with gusto (well, I guess crafting lies is what we do best). Writers with more experience in this sort of event contacted me during the day and suggested ways of improving publicity via Twitter. When I had to leave for a while, the party carried on, with other writers posting more (virtual) food and fizz when stocks ran low. These are all little things in themselves, but indications of friendship and support. My thanks go to all my writing friends who helped to make the day such a success.

I wanted to run a prize draw during the party. So I approached some of my published colleagues and asked if they would donate a copy of their book as a prize. Every single one said yes and some donated more than one book. I had assumed they would all send ebooks, since the cost of providing a ‘freebie’ is minimal. Some did, but others preferred to provide paperback copies (yes, we do still produce physical books as well). They even paid the postage themselves. I was blown away by the speed with which I gathered an impressive list of prizes for my draw. So, this is a public thank you to all the authors who donated books to the draw:

R C Bridgestock: White Lilies
Tina K Burton: Eclectic Dreams
Maggie Cobbett: Had We But World Enough; Anyone for Murder?
Sophie Duffy: The Generation Game; This Holey Life
Margaret James: The Golden Chain
Peter Jones: How To Do Everything and Be Happy
Madalyn Morgan: Foxden Acres
Kate Sermon: Dark Sleepers
Terry Tyler: Dream On; You Wish; The Other Side; Nobody’s Fault
Jane Wenham-Jones: 100 Ways To Fight The Flab; Perfect Alibis
Sarah PJ White: The Last Angel

The world of an author is a strange, wonderful, interesting one — and it is undergoing huge change at present. Many of the writers on this list are self-published. Several of the books are available as ebook versions only. Even the authors with publishing contracts have to do much of the marketing themselves. There are thousands of new books published every week. It’s definitely a buyers’ market these days.

So, this is my plea to all readers, on behalf of my writer friends: when you finish a book that you have enjoyed, don’t just put it down and move on to the next one. Tell your friends and family about it. If you bought it from a bookshop, tell them how good it is or offer to write a review for them. If you borrowed it from the library, ditto. Write a review for Amazon, for Goodreads, for other review sites. I put my reviews on the specific book page on Amazon (and remember to hit the ‘like’ button at the same time), but also on my book blog. And don’t forget to talk to the author too. We all suffer moments of self-doubt; it really helps to hear from readers who have enjoyed our writing. If you can’t find contact details in the book, you will often finding us lurking on Facebook or Twitter (all in the cause of research, naturally). Drop by and say hi; writers are a really friendly crowd and generous too.